Physicians and Clergy Grapple with Spiritual Pain as an Expression of Suffering in End-of-Life CareAndy Achenbaum, PhD,Scholar in Residence at the Institute for Spirituality and Health in the Texas Medical Center

The palliative care unit is “the intensive care unit for human suffering,” declared Dr. Eduardo Bruera in his keynote to a conference devoted to spiritual dimensions that alleviate suffering in end-of-life care. This paper will highlight efforts by religious leaders from many faith traditions as well as health-care professions from across the world, who met in Houston, Texas under the aegis of the Pontifical Academy for Life in mid-September 2018, to refine and advance integrative, inter-professional models that melded religion and medicine to lessen physical and spiritual suffering in caring for the dying. This paper will summarize remarks by Dr. Mauro Ferrari, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Life and director of the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, and Dr. Eduardo Bruera, a distinguished oncologist at M.D. Anderson, who organized the conference—as well as luminaries in the field such as Drs. Christina Puchalski and Ira Byock. Special attention will be given to the analysis of “suffering” in the “White Paper for Global Palliative Care Advocacy” (cited below), which was released at the conference. The paper will summarize the work by delegates invited to generate action plans focused on making practical recommendations to persuade medical-school deans and to inform leaders of faith communities in the value of spiritually grounded palliative medicine in addressing suffering. To put words in action, the Institute for Spirituality and Health in the Texas Medical Center along with other centers will conduct follow-up demonstration projects, including attention to the role that caregivers and family members play in relieving suffering in end-of-life care.​Carlos Centeno, MD, PhD et al, “White Paper for Global Palliative Care Advocacy: Recommendations from the expert advocacy group of the PontificalAcademy for Life.” Pub online: 26 Sep 2018/https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2018.0248

Jennifer Gibson, MD. 2018. End of life care, pain, and the problem of intolerable suffering.